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September 1, 2017 | Yesterday, NBC News reported that notes written by Trump’s then-campaign manager Paul Manafort during a June 2016 meeting with Russians at Trump Tower included cryptic references to political contributions and the Republican National Committee. According to the report, the notes were turned over to both House and Senate intelligence committees, as well as to Special…

August 1, 2017 | For the past five years — with the exception of a dip in 2016 — spending on lobbying in the first six months has been steadily increasing. Overall spending for the first six months of 2017 amounts to $1.66 billion — the highest it has been since the first half of 2012, which was followed…

July 31, 2017 | The Center will soon be updating web pages for members to include 2018 cycle data. As a preview of what’s coming, here are some preliminary numbers for House leaders Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House. Ryan is clearly popular with Wall Street – his candidate committee…

July 24, 2017 | As part of President Trump’s promise to dismantle the regulatory state, his administration has cancelled or delayed Obama-era protections for workers and the environment. It has installed agency heads unlikely to pursue strict enforcement of existing rules. And it has allowed political appointees to oversee the rollback of rules affecting their previous employers. Now industry groups see another…

July 7, 2017 | In May, at a conference for investors in New York, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya raised eyebrows by calling Amazon a “multi-trillion dollar monopoly hiding in plain sight.” Amazon’s current market cap is $461 billion; getting to a market cap of $3 trillion, as Palihapitiya suggested it would, will require a nearly seven-fold increase in value. Just…

July 7, 2017 | 267 former aides who worked for four congressional committees pivotal in approving new healthcare legislation are registered lobbyists for clients from the health sector or health insurance industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ analysis of Senate lobbying data. (See all the data here) In addition, 18 former lawmakers also swung through the revolving…

June 23, 2017 | Travis Kalanick officially announced his resignation as Uber CEO Wednesday morning after taking a leave of absence from the company the week before. Now the ride-hailing service is looking to recover from criticism surrounding sexual harassment and workplace discrimination within the company. Johan Chu, an assistant professor of organizations and strategy at the University of…

June 16, 2017 | The Trump presidency is less than five months old, but has been a quick study at one longstanding D.C. tradition: the Friday-night dump. Administrations often release promised documents once journalists have left the office for the weekend, hoping that any damaging info would get lost in the news cycle turnover. Today, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics has followed suit and released a…

June 8, 2017 | There’s big money to be made—for players, agents, and networks—in the NBA Finals currently underway. But while the Golden State Warriors battle the Cleveland Cavaliers on the court, off court, NBA team owners have been making some sizable political contributions. In fact, the generous and deep-pocketed NBA owners gave just under $12 million in 2016,…

May 25, 2017 | Even with the 2018 midterm elections still 18 months away, both Republicans and Democrats are making moves to strengthen their most vulnerable incumbents. One way they’re doing it: By contributing through their candidate committees and leadership PACs. Already, more than $3 million changed hands this way in the first three months of 2017 — nearly…

May 17, 2017 | Uber service for pallets of lumber, crates of fruit and boxes of bolts? Last week, the company’s embattled CEO Travis Kalanick tweeted an image of an “Uber Freight” truck, a product of the company’s still-gestating foray into the trucking industry. Amazon, reportedly, is also working on an app that will connect truckers and shippers —…

May 11, 2017 | Is it 2018 already? Hard to believe it’s only been six months since the last election judging by the number of super PACs that have cropped up so far. Through May 10, more than 140 groups that can spend unlimited amounts of money in elections independently from candidates have appeared since Jan. 1 of 2017,…

May 8, 2017 | As hot an issue as the environment has been in recent years, there’s never been much money in it for politicians. People who work for environmental advocacy groups, for instance, tend not to have a lot of extra scratch to contribute to candidates and parties, and political action committees in the field are generally modestly…

May 8, 2017 | The Recording Academy’s high-wattage GRAMMYs on the Hill event in early April honored Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) for their commitment to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) — an agency that President Donald Trump‘s administration has proposed cutting. Still, stars like country singers Keith Urban and Wynonna Judd, both of…

May 4, 2017 | For someone who repeatedly berated Wall Street during his campaign, President Trump received a lot of inauguration help from its inhabitants. The securities and investment industry contributed the greatest chunk to Trump’s inaugural festivities, $14.3 million, or about 13 percent of all donations. To compare, Obama received $4.6 million from Wall Street in 2009 and $3…

May 3, 2017 | This week, the Justice Department moved to delay enforcement of rules the FDA finalized a year ago dealing with tobacco products like e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco. It’s been a busy time for big tobacco, as the victory came on the heels of a defeat for vaping (e-cigarette) companies: Sunday night’s omnibus budget bill reportedly did…

April 28, 2017 | While you’re not seeing much in terms of cheesy outside group ads in South Carolina’s special election, there’s no shortage of unique messaging going on in the race. Turn on the TV and you can catch one of candidate Sheri Few’s ads, in which she’s holding an AR-15 and condemning lawmakers from removing Confederate flags and…

April 27, 2017 | Donald Trump’s inaugural committee did well by almost any standard: Doubling the previous record for cash raised to fund festivities around a new president’s swearing-in, it took in contributions from every major sector of the economy, and from donors who had steered clear of his campaign prior to the election. The committee also received about…

April 24, 2017 | Before President Trump was sworn in, his rhetoric and treatment of lobbyists seemed pretty harsh. He announced lobbyists would be kicked off the transition team and registered lobbyists couldn’t work in his administration, and some lobbyists deregistered to stand a chance to serve. Then things turned, and Trump was soon letting former lobbyists serve on his…

April 21, 2017 | With President Trump’s 100th day looming, he’s struggled to check off some of the big initiatives on his to-do list, such as getting rid of Obamacare and overhauling the tax code. These hefty projects invite companies and other groups with something at stake to frantically lobby the government, hoping the legislation can turn in their…

April 19, 2017 | What does it take to stage a welcome-to-the-neighborhood blowout? President Trump raised $107 million for his inaugural festivities, shattering previous records. The former titleholder, Barack Obama, raised half that, $53.2 million, in 2009 — though Obama imposed far stricter limits on amounts and sources of donations. At least 47 people or organizations gave $1 million or…

April 18, 2017 | Last week, Kansas’ 4th Congressional District nearly produced the first shocking election result of the Trump era. The underfunded and unheralded campaign of Democrat James Thompson came within 8,195 votes of defeating Republican Ron Estes in a district that Trump won by 27 percentage points. The recriminations began almost immediately on both sides, with Democrats…

April 13, 2017 | Democrats came surprisingly close to seizing a red seat earlier this week in a House special election in Kansas. But filling HHS Secretary Tom Price’s seat in the Georgia 6th in another special next Tuesday is the battle where Team Blue may have a real shot. Frontrunner and first-time candidate Jon Ossoff raised a startling $8.2 million in the just over three months…

April 13, 2017 | Election Day, 2016? Now an ancient memory from a distant time. But the intervening months have allowed us to do some math and determine, finally, the price tag for the whole shebang. We can now report that the total cost of the election was nearly $6.5 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2012’s figure of just under…

April 4, 2017 | This week, all the attention’s on Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump‘s nominee to become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. But there’s another position in play: Tomorrow (April 5), the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a confirmation hearing for Scott Gottlieb, who’s in line to head the Food and…

March 31, 2017 | Know what it feels like to be worth more than 10 digits? These 2,043 people do. Forbes released its 30th annual World’s Billionaires list in March to make us all feel bad about our bank accounts. But what does one do with all that dough? With great wealth comes great potential to help your favorite politicians get elected. Of the…

March 30, 2017 | Americans cut their beef consumption by 19 percent between 2005 and 2014, according to a new study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). For a quick visualization, you — a person of average appetite somewhere in the U.S. — ate five whole cows in 2005; in 2014, you ate four, plus a few bites of…

March 29, 2017 | The House’s vote Tuesday approving a resolution that would allow internet service providers to sell data about their customers’ browsing history split nearly along party lines. The final vote was 215-205, with nine members not voting. The Democrats voted against the resolution as a block. On the Republican side, 15 members split from their party…

March 29, 2017 | You thought we wouldn’t have to deal with another federal election for two years after Nov. 8, didn’t you? Sorry. Lawmakers were scooped up shortly after to fill spots in the Trump administration or take high-level state positions, so voters in five states get another run at the polling places. Coming up fast on the…

March 24, 2017 | Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has been mired in questions about his investments in the healthcare industry. As it turns out, some of the people helping him get grounded at the department are also prompting questions about their ties with the industry. Lance Leggitt, a lobbyist at Baker Donelson since 2006, was named…

March 23, 2017 | Each time President Donald Trump adds another Goldman Sachs alum to his administration, it’s tempting to bring up his campaign-trail rhetoric about the investment bank. After all, it seems as though Trump is trying to drain the swamp by forcing it to overflow; last week, he nominated Goldman managing director James Donovan to the post of deputy Treasury…

March 15, 2017 | Let’s say you flip a coin, and it lands heads up. You flip it again, and it’s heads a second time. You toss it once more — you’re feeling exceptionally lucky — and it’s heads for the third time in a row. The chances of that happening are 12.5 percent. In the 2016 cycle, that was precisely…

March 13, 2017 | Today, in the spirit of Sunshine Week, the Center for Responsive Politics introduces Foreign Lobby Watch, allowing users of its OpenSecrets.org website to search filings required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). “Sunshine Week reminds Americans how fundamental it is for citizens to have access to public information that helps us more effectively engage…

March 10, 2017 | With each of President Donald Trump’s trips to the Mar-a-Lago Club questions mount about who, exactly, is there with him. Those wealthy enough to spend $200,000 for a club membership don’t have to try to schedule a meeting with Trump in Washington when they can bump into him at the winter White House and bend…

March 9, 2017 | This year has already seen historic large-scale demonstrations celebrating women and demanding equal rights, starting with the day after President Trump’s inauguration, when millions gathered on the National Mall and around the globe for Women’s March events. This March, on International Women’s Day, participants wore red to raise awareness, while women were encouraged to skip work…

March 8, 2017 | Sen. Chris Van Hollen‘s (D-Md.) star has been on the rise in the Democratic party: After seven terms in the House, he won a Senate seat last November, and now occupies a much-coveted spot on the Appropriations committee while also chairing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party’s fundraising arm for its Senate candidates. A knack for…

March 2, 2017 | You couldn’t blame defense contractors for being in a great mood this week. In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly said he wants to build up American military dominance — announced that he’s “sending Congress a budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the defense sequester and calls for…

February 28, 2017 | President Donald Trump wasted little time attending to one of his constituencies: Less than a month after taking office, and surrounded by applauding coal miners and a few friendly members of Congress, he put the knife in an Obama-era regulation barring coal mine waste from being dumped in waterways. And Trump is said to have more…

February 24, 2017 | On her way to winning a Nevada Senate seat in 2016, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto spent almost $19 million; her Republican opponent, then-Rep. Joe Heck, paid out nearly $12 million. Their combined spending of over $30 million was among the highest in the nation. Still, it was eclipsed by investments in the race by outside…

February 23, 2017 | In addition to submitting her resignation from the Federal Election Commission this week, Ann Ravel is leaving behind some scathing last words in a report condemning the “dysfunction and deadlock” of the agency she chaired. “While the FEC’s employees strive to fulfill its mission, the Commission itself—made up of six Commissioners—is not performing its duty,” Ravel wrote. “A…

February 22, 2017 | There’s a packed field in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee, whose 447 members will elect their new leader on Saturday. Rep. Keith Ellison and former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez lead the nine candidates who remain in the contest — a relatively diverse bunch hailing from around the country and from various levels…

February 16, 2017 | President Donald Trump announced Alexander Acosta, the dean of Florida International University College of Law, as his new pick to head the Department of Labor on Thursday. Despite backing from top industry trade groups, Puzder withdrew his nomination Wednesday after it became clear he didn’t have enough GOP support in the Senate. Republicans began breaking away…

February 15, 2017 | President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began establishing their face-to-face diplomatic relationship with a meeting on February 15th. But the broader ties between the U.S. and Israel date back decades, and have been bolstered by pro–Israel interests that are active political donors and haven’t hesitated to press their views on issues affecting the…

February 10, 2017 | The money candidates raise and spend during the heat of a campaign are pretty good predictors of the outcome. In 2016, for instance, the candidate who spent more won in 94 percent of Senate contests and 96 percent of House races. But now that Election Day has come and gone, another set of figures can…

February 9, 2017 | President Donald Trump has said, often and with great pride, that he is “the king of debt.” That’s not a distinction any congressional campaign is gunning for, though, and most manage to avoid it. The median campaign debt for a member of the 115th House of Representatives as of Nov. 28: Zero. But a look…

February 1, 2017 | We started to spot the decline when Barack Obama took office: Fewer people registered to lobby, and less money was being spent to influence Washington. And that trend continued last year: By the end of 2016, companies spent $3.1 billion to persuade the government, the smallest amount since 2007. And 11,143 lobbyists were active, a 3.2 percent decrease…

February 1, 2017 | Tom Brady, the quarterback of the NFL‘s New England Patriots, is no stranger to the limelight. Sunday’s Super Bowl LI (51) between his team and the Atlanta Falcons will mark his seventh appearance in football’s championship face-off; it could be his fifth victory. Brady has been linked to more controversial activities, as well, like the Deflategate controversy…

January 31, 2017 | It’s official: If Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s choice to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, is confirmed by the Senate, we’ll have yet another millionaire on the court of last resort. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals judge is a respected jurist and elegant writer who’s considered similar to the late justice whose seat he may…

January 31, 2017 | Democratic multibillionaire J.B. Pritzker is running in 2018 to become the 43rd governor of Illinois — against the current occupant of that seat, Bruce Rauner (R-IL), who just seeded his re-election committee with $50 million of his own money. Pritzker is the cofounder and managing partner of Pritzker Group, a private investment firm, and the son…

January 31, 2017 | Thinking about ordering up an Uber to get downtown after grabbing your half-caff skinny hazlenut latte at Starbucks? In the wake of #DeleteUber and #BoycottStarbucks, you might want to consider the politically dissonant messages sent by those previously unremarkable actions. Media-marketing specialist Shannon Coulter created the hashtag #GrabYourWallet in October to encourage consumers to boycott businesses carrying presidential…

January 27, 2017 | Quite a few corporations floated multi-billion dollar mergers in 2016, including ag leaders Monsanto and Bayer, telecom titans AT&T and Time Warner and fantasy sports giants FanDuel and Draft Kings. And with such marriages — which undergo scrutiny by antitrust officials and often Congress, a routine part of any merger process — often comes an uptick…

January 19, 2017 | This January marked the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee ruling — a decision that has left a deeper footprint with every election cycle. After the 5-4 decision, which freed corporations and unions to make unlimited independent political expenditures, the super PAC was born. And that creature has gone forth…

January 18, 2017 | Last week, the Senate voted down an amendment to allow importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Most Republicans voted no; most Democrats voted yes. One who bucked his party, though, was New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D), the on-the-rise progressive who’s been mentioned as a possible contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. As a result, multiple…

January 16, 2017 | Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s Treasury nominee, became a far wealthier man in 2015 when CIT Group spent $3.4 billion to buy up OneWest, a bank Mnuchin chaired. The deal was helped along by supportive letters written by 14 nonprofits that had received a combined $5.95 million from OneWest’s charitable arm in the years before and after the sale, as POLITICO has reported.…

January 11, 2017 | The Federal Election Commission on Tuesday sent its harshest letter yet to Donald Trump’s campaign committee, outlining violations that include accepting large donations from anonymous sources, taking contributions above the legal limits, failing to file reports of last-minute contributions and more. It wasn’t the first such admonishment of the Trump campaign by the agency; he…

January 9, 2017 | Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has come under fire for buying and selling shares companies in the health care industry whose fortunes he could affect through his perch in Congress, and for intervening with regulators on behalf of some of his donors in the…

January 6, 2017 | Chinese e-commerce megalith Ali Baba Group set a record for the world’s largest initial public offering in late 2014, raising a mind-blowing $25 billion. Since then, the company has stepped up its Washington presence. In 2015, for instance, it spent $410,000 on federal lobbying — but that increased to $640,000 in just the first three-quarters…

December 21, 2016 | For some 2016 candidates, there was a lot of sharing during the campaign season — more than ever before. It wasn’t due to an epidemic of altruism, though; in fact, it might have been quite the reverse. The sharing was between candidates and the super PACs devoted to promoting them. An OpenSecrets Blog analysis found…

December 21, 2016 | With control of the Senate and possibly the House at stake — or so it seemed until close to Election Day — the word went out from the Democratic and Republican parties to lawmakers: If you’re not running this time, or if you’re sitting on a pile of cash, share the love. Priority races were…

December 13, 2016 | The Dakota Access Pipeline protesters just got a new reason to keep their Standing Rock encampment intact: former Texas governor and two-time presidential candidate Rick Perry, tapped today by President-elect Donald Trump to head his Energy Department. Never mind that Perry — who now becomes the second of Trump’s competitors named to his Cabinet (Ben…

December 9, 2016 | The 2016 election is over. Ballots have been cast, and (most) federal candidates know the outcome of their hard-fought races. Yet company PACs and even individuals are still writing checks to candidates’ campaign committees, even though the campaigns they’re funding are done. “Giving after the election clearly shows the donation is not given to support…

December 1, 2016 | It’s no secret that Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, is a political fundraising juggernaut. Her contributions to candidates and school choice causes around the country have been all over the news since she was named the nominee. More consequential, though, are the depth and breadth of contributions by her family…

November 22, 2016 | Update Nov. 30: President-elect Donald Trump selected Wilbur Ross as his Treasury Secretary. Read on for more information or see summary data on his contribution history here. Trump chose Todd Ricketts as Deputy Secretary. The competition for slots in Donald Trump’s future Cabinet has the feel of a reality show: Lots of media attention, “contestants” presenting…

November 16, 2016 | Update Dec. 14: President-elect Trump tapped ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. For background on his political contributions, click here. We continue our series on the money-in-politics histories of candidates for Donald Trump’s future Cabinet by looking at those who have been mentioned as possibilities to run the State Department. (See our earlier analyses on prospects for…

November 14, 2016 | Update Nov. 30: President-elect Donald Trump selected Steven Mnunchin as his Treasury Secretary. Read on for more information or see summary data on his contributions here. New administration, new Cabinet members. President-elect Donald Trump has already begun picking out his crew, but so far, his two concrete choices did not donate a penny to Trump’s election…

November 9, 2016 | Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House despite raising half as much campaign cash as his Democratic opponent and benefiting from $162 million less in outside spending by groups devoted solely to helping him win. It’s the first time since 1996 that the president-elect raised less money than his opponent, and the Dole v.…

November 2, 2016 | Spoiler alert: This year’s election is getting even more pricey. We reran the numbers, and have a new-and-improved prediction for the total cost of the 2016 federal election: at least $6.9 billion, about $350 million more than we predicted last week. This time, we were able to make a more precise comparison by analyzing data from…

October 28, 2016 | Washington thrives on speculation and now, after months of guessing at things like primary contenders and vice presidential picks, it’s time to draft potential cabinets. With no shortage of well-educated guesses on who might lead the various executive departments, certain names crop up more often than others, often officials and bureaucrats with substantial political and policy…

October 25, 2016 | Note: Please see our updated prediction of the cost of the 2016 election. Is 2016 the Year of the Billionaire when it comes to financing the election? There are plenty in the mix. And they’ve helped fuel what is turning out to be the most expensive election ever. The Center for Responsive Politics projects that candidates,…

October 18, 2016 | Remember American Horizons PAC? The committee advertised a ‘Dinner with Donald‘ in July, prompting Trump’s lawyers to send a cease-and-desist letter about the fundraiser, accusing the committee of defrauding its donors. A harsh reprimand from the group’s preferred candidate wasn’t enough to shut the shop down, however. (Though it did put the kibosh on the dinner fundraiser.) In…

October 13, 2016 | With scorching news about Donald Trump dominating the media, along with his equally blistering pushback, GOP members of Congress have had to make some tough decisions about where to position themselves vis-a-vis the top of the ticket. And situation’s trickle-down volatility has done them no favors, helping to ensure that the latest Roll Call list…

October 7, 2016 | The possibility that Donald Trump avoided paying income tax for nearly two decades has stirred debate about how, exactly, he managed to report almost $1 billion in net operating losses on his 1995 tax return. It has also triggered buzz about the copious benefits available to the real estate industry in our tax code. The exact…

September 28, 2016 | Talk about disproportional giving: The group organizing the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this year raised almost three-fourths of its donations from only 17 sources. The Dems’ host committee raised $69.7 million, with $51.2 million of that coming in from contributions, grants, or in-kind donations worth $1 million or more each. That includes a $10…

September 23, 2016 | Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are dominating campaign finance headlines, but documents filed with the FEC Tuesday show the election’s most popular third-party candidates, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, have been spending significant shares of their campaign cash bidding for broader electoral support. The monthly reports also capture two campaigns…

August 12, 2016 | Hillary Clinton’s record of bundlers contains some familiar names — though it’s not nearly as long as President Barack Obama’s list was at this point in 2012. Clinton has so far received at least $49.6 million from nearly 500 bundlers, or individual fundraisers who collect money from friends and acquaintances in order to deliver a candidate a…

August 9, 2016 | The lobbying industry may start arguing for its own bailout bill, given the relentless decline in reported spending for its services. The first quarter of 2016 was sluggish, the second similarly so. And with it came a pronounced dive in the number of active registered lobbyists. With 325 fewer lobbyists registered in the second quarter of…

August 5, 2016 | The 2016 presidential election has been filled with historic moments for politically involved women, including donors. For years, women have contributed less money than men to federal candidates, parties and other political committees at the over-$200 giving level, but the gender giving gap appears to have improved for at least one major candidate in 2016. …

July 21, 2016 | Primetime speakers at the Republican National Convention might not support Republican nominee Donald Trump as much as they would like you to think. At least, not with their wallets. FEC records identify just 3 of the 68 primetime speakers (excluding Trump) as having made contributions to Donald Trump’s campaign, joint fundraising committees, or major super…

July 19, 2016 | Republicans are denouncing Ohio Gov. John Kasich for ditching his own party’s convention held in the state he governs. Of course, he’s not the only nationally known GOP leader to skip the proceedings. It gets worse, though: None of Monday’s or today’s prime-time speakers at the Cleveland confab have donated more than $200 to Donald Trump’s campaign or the super…

July 16, 2016 | Numerous Republican elites are ditching their party’s national convention in Cleveland this year. (And with some pretty lame excuses, too.) Boy, are they missing out. Sure, on what likely will be a fascinating main event, but mostly they’re skipping out on some of the biggest soirées of the season. Special interests, lobbyists, politicians and the media…

June 30, 2016 | Super PACs can churn through a lot of money. Exhibit A: Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise USA. Led by veteran GOP operative Mike Murphy, Right to Rise was excoriated in the press for burning through $87 million in independent expenditures in support of Bush (and tens of millions more in operating expenses — $104 million total) without any discernible…

June 29, 2016 | With less than three weeks left until the Republicans open their convention on July 18, both parties may be thinking more fondly about the good old days of public financing. Each party would have received about $20 million for their nominating powwows this year if the public funding program had continued. Instead, Congress dispensed with…

June 17, 2016 | Dysfunction comes in many forms. Just ask any of the six-in-10 employees of the Federal Election Commission with low morale when it comes to their jobs. Better yet, ask their kids. Officials at the FEC have a tall order, to be sure: keeping track of the funds being raised and spent and enforcing campaign finance…

June 9, 2016 | Hillary Clinton has raised a higher percentage of her campaign funds from women than any major party presidential candidate in recent history. She’s also raised a higher total in contributions from women than any other candidate at this point in the cycle. And Donald Trump has the dubious honor of achieving the exact opposite: He has raised less from women than…

June 9, 2016 | House lawmakers and their staffers used to make about 150 stops there a year on their privately sponsored jaunts around the world. Then came a massive ethics investigation, and they all stopped taking those free trips to Turkey — cold. Not a single House member or staffer has disclosed a privately sponsored trip to Turkey since the Office…

June 1, 2016 | This post has been updated. Hedge fund and other private equity managers have created a huge imbalance in the campaign finance picture with their massive contributions to super PACs. But as an industry, Wall Street writ large makes its mark in the simplest of ways: by simply giving more, by far, to candidates than any…

May 26, 2016 | The Florida-based luxury yacht vendor had never previously made a political contribution. So when it came to light that Evermarine LLC had given $100,000 to an obscure super PAC — by far the group’s largest contribution — which was forwarded within 48 hours to the super PAC supporting Sen. Marco Rubio‘s presidential run, some thought…

May 12, 2016 | It’s probably fair to say that the average American doesn’t understand hedge funds. After all, very few people have the expertise or the money necessary to participate in this corner of the financial market. But the industry is currently dominating political giving. In the 2016 cycle, they gave more than ever before to political candidates…

May 10, 2016 | When it comes to campaign donations, some parts of the U.S. are more equal than others. Politicians are acutely aware of this, and they travel a well-trodden path in their quest to fill their campaign coffers – Silicon Valley, Manhattan and Washington, D.C., for instance, are reliable candidate ATMs. Here’s another way to look at…

May 6, 2016 | Despite lobbying intensely for their interests in Congress, tobacco giants didn’t put up much of the fight against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new rules on e-cigarettes, pipe tobacco and cigars, records show. That helped hand a victory to opponents concerned about the health effects of vaping. Announced Thursday, the rules impose a strong…

May 5, 2016 | Some of their clients appeared to have little to do with a federal agency that oversees airplane registration and certification, air traffic controllers and airport construction. But that didn’t stop lobbyists for Fluor Corp, an energy engineering company, and a handful of other companies that looked a little out of place in the expected cast of characters from lobbying on “Federal…

April 27, 2016 | Lobbying clients overall apparently weren’t looking to burst out of the gate in 2016, but outlays by some of the biggest companies in the pharmaceutical industry spiked during the year’s first quarter. Lobbying spending by companies and interest groups in the first three months of 2016 — the last year of an eight-year presidential administration…

April 21, 2016 | To find some of the best story lines this side of the presidential contest, look no further than the tubs of money sloshing around in congressional races. The cash being spent in the Beltway-straddling Maryland 8th District is in another stratosphere. David Trone, the founder of a major alcoholic beverage retailer and a Donald Trump-style…

April 1, 2016 | Though it’s given $3.6 million to outside spending groups so far this cycle, the nation’s largest labor group has joined advocates of overhauling the campaign finance system who are explicitly angling to be the subjects of mass arrests on Capitol Hill this month if their demands to Congress aren’t met. The AFL-CIO is the only organization involved in the coalition, called…

March 30, 2016 | Happy anniversary. The first day of the 2016 cycle to see more than $5 million in contributions to major presidential super PACs was one year ago — March 31, 2015. The day belonged to Right to Rise USA. The super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush‘s ill-fated campaign, with its “shock and awe” fundraising strategy…

March 24, 2016 | A super PAC supporting a candidate to replace departing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has received far more than just $10,000 from limited liability companies this cycle, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of LLC contributions shows. Nearly one-fifth of Reform Washington‘s funds this cycle have come from entities with “LLC” appended to their names. Only a…

March 18, 2016 | Donald Trump, the prohibitive favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, just added a fistful of primaries to his string of victories and knocked the GOP establishment’s favorite son, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), out of the race. To beat Trump now, it seems, someone thinks it’s time to get evil. Dr. Evil, to be exact. Washington consultant Rick…

March 15, 2016 | Just in time for Sunshine Week, the annual campaign for open government, Google and the Center for Responsive Politics have teamed up to provide greater access to information on presidential candidates. This morning, Google added new features to the results it provides to users searching for information on the men and women in pursuit of the…

March 11, 2016 | This story was cross-posted on TIME.com. Wrapped around D.C.’s northern tip and barely a precious stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol, Maryland’s 8th Congressional District is one of the nation’s wealthiest: Census Bureau figures show its residents have a median household income of more than $94,000. Plenty of cash there, then, to fund the numerous…

March 3, 2016 | To little fanfare, the super PAC founded by liberal climate change activist Tom Steyer has amassed $13 million of the California billionaire’s own money this election cycle — so far. That outpaces the $9.3 million Steyer gave his outside group, Next Gen Climate Action Committee, by this point in 2014. Very little of that money has gone toward directly…

February 12, 2016 | This election cycle is flush with outside spending. As of today, super PACs, social welfare 501(c)(4) groups, trade associations, unions, parties and others (corporations, individuals etc) have spent $203.4 million this cycle. By this time in 2014, they’d spent less than half that much, Center for Responsive Politics data show, and in 2012 the number was…

February 5, 2016 | With the veteran Denver Broncos matching up against the youthful North Carolina Panthers at Super Bowl 50 this weekend, one story line is about the quarterback matchup: newly minted MVP Cam Newton versus Peyton Manning, a five-time winner of that honor who is rumored to be retiring after Sunday. Of course, it’s also all about…

February 1, 2016 | Well-known liberal and conservative political donors left the sidelines and injected tens of millions of dollars into the presidential race over the past six months. And once again, it was a tiny group of individuals and businesses who gave a great deal of the money now being deployed in the presidential nomination fights. Reports filed…

January 28, 2016 | When you type “Tim Cook not” into Google, one of the first phrases to pop up is “Tim Cook is not a visionary.” He may be no Steve Jobs, but with the company’s growth slowing, Apple Inc.’s CEO clearly has a vision — one where Apple is a major player in federal lobbying. This week…

January 27, 2016 | Major Republican donors — some of whom saw their chosen presidential candidates crash and burn in the last six months — dropped serious money into House Speaker Paul D. Ryan‘s joint fundraising committee (JFC) in November and December, campaign finance records show. Marquee 2016 donors like Diane Hendricks and Marlene Ricketts, who both gave millions to the…

January 26, 2016 | We’re running out of synonyms for “decline.” For years, OpenSecrets Blog has reported essentially the same headline. Washington’s influence industry appears to be contracting, and the trend continued in 2015. Overall spending dipped just slightly last year, from $3.24 billion in 2014 to $3.20 billion, but the number became the latest data point in the long, slow slide in…

January 25, 2016 | The 10 biggest lobbying spenders in Washington laid out less than $300 million in 2015, lobbying records and Center for Responsive Politics data show. Expenditures by the top 10 fell to just under $282 million, down from about $323.7 million the year before. Last year, the top tier included some perennials — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National…

December 23, 2015 | Lists are easy, as any writer left behind on a skeletal holiday staff will tell you. The “Best of [year]” list in particular isn’t art, it’s #content — but done with care, it can be a revealing reminder of the highlights of the previous year. To that end, here’s OpenSecrets Blog’s list of our best…

December 17, 2015 | The oil industry‘s victory in the battle to lift the crude export ban didn’t come out of thin air. Opponents of the prohibition — long some of the biggest forces in the Washington influence game — began lobbying on the issue in earnest in early 2013, with the effort building until they accomplished their long-sought goal…

December 9, 2015 | This post has been updated. Twenty-four politically active nonprofits — including some of the biggest names in dark money — have devoted more than half their total spending to influencing elections in at least one year between 2008 and 2013, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows. At least three have done so more than once.…

November 17, 2015 | A yearly report from the Center for Responsive Politics. Wealth inequality in the United States is pervasive — so much so that it’s apparent even in Congress. The House and Senate have their own form of inequality within their ranks. Of the 534 current members, the 53 richest owned nearly 80 percent of the estimated wealth held by…

November 5, 2015 | For months, a group of high-rolling Republican donors with considerable resources to pour into super PACs or political nonprofits were undecided about which White House candidate to support with their millions. But that’s finally changing, in no small part due to billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer‘s announcement last weekend that he’s backing Sen. Marco…

October 27, 2015 | Someone must have called a three-month time out in Washington’s influence game during the late summer and early fall. Spending on lobbying was already sluggish this year, but outlays dropped from nearly $822 million between April 1 and June 30 to $738.6 million in the most recent quarter. While the third quarter is typically the slowest of…

October 22, 2015 | Lawyers are showing a lot of love for Hillary Clinton, while Wall Street is investing most heavily in Jeb Bush. Outside of retirees, a traditional and unsurprising donor base for most candidates, the 2016 presidential candidates looked to a variety of industries in their quest for campaign money from individuals in 2015’s third quarter, a Center…

October 21, 2015 | The top 10 lobbying spenders in the third quarter of 2015 reported paying lobbyists about $23 million less than the second quarter’s top 10 spenders did, the latest records show. In the second quarter, the top 10 spenders reported nearly $89 million in outlays, compared to almost $66 million between July 1 and Sept. 30…

October 6, 2015 | For interest groups that sought to influence Washington’s thinking on the massive trade package set to bind together 40 percent of the world’s economy, Monday’s announcement of an agreement on the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a long time coming. Over eight years of negotiations, 487 clients paid lobbyists to meet with or contact lawmakers and administration officials…

September 18, 2015 | Thanks to the new college football playoff system, rankings this early in the season don’t mean a thing. But with the season in full swing and conference games kicking off across the country tomorrow, let’s do a meaningless ranking of our own: the AP Top 10, ranked by how much each team’s hometown has given…

August 13, 2015 | Federal agents are seeking documents from former Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) that relate to a major GOP political vendor under indictment for allegedly conspiring to funnel foreign funds into a U.S. mayoral election, according to recently unsealed court documents and an OpenSecrets Blog analysis of campaign finance data. The vendor, ElectionMall Inc., and its CEO, Ravneet…

August 11, 2015 | If Mike Huckabee loses the race for the Republican nomination — again — at least his travel company will have made a little money in the process. The super PAC backing Huckabee, Pursuing America’s Greatness, paid Blue Diamond Travel, LLC nearly $30,000 on May 8, 2015, just three days after the former Arkansas governor announced his second…

August 5, 2015 | Federal prosecutors charged three members of Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign staff Tuesday, alleging the three filed false campaign documents in order to cover up an illegal $25,000 payment made to an Iowa state senator to buy political support for Paul in 2011, according to a six-count indictment handed down Wednesday. In the indictment, prosecutors allege that…

August 1, 2015 | The 2016 presidential race may be a whole new ball game in terms of fundraising, but most of the players’ names are awfully familiar — even if their faces are a bit more lined. Very few of the top donors to the super PACs backing one of the many GOP White House hopefuls or handful…

July 30, 2015 | Substantial spikes in outlays for lobbying by some of the biggest-spending clients could not keep overall second-quarter numbers from sliding below those of the first three months of the year — and in fact below those of any second quarter since at least 2010, with the exception of 2013. About $802 million was spent on…

July 22, 2015 | Relatively inexperienced IRS managers could take the reins of gatekeeping panels with significant sway over dark money groups under the terms of a memo sent to agency managers last week and obtained by OpenSecrets Blog. The panels determine whether non-profits involved in political activity are called out for audits. Effective July 17, a team of…

July 10, 2015 | In the first half of the year ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the super PAC affiliated with Jeb Bush raised four times as much money as all super PACs — combined — during the same period in 2011. Together, all super PACs had raised nearly $26 million by the end of June 2011, according…

July 9, 2015 | Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and other candidates made no secret of the fact they would accept contributions from registered lobbyists for 2016. Now, those donations from K Street are already rolling in, according to lobbying contribution records made available by the Senate Office of Public Records. The records cover the first half of 2015 and include…

June 22, 2015 | The Green Party nominee in 2012, Jill Stein, is officially seeking another White House bid after asserting that the U.S. is ready to move away from a two-party system. Undaunted by receiving just .36 percent of the vote in the 2012 presidential election – which admittedly made her the most successful general election female presidential…

June 16, 2015 | Michael Galloway of Bakersfield, Calif., owns a high-traffic website that takes charitable donations, has a fleet of tech companies and is now the treasurer for a new super PAC called We Are America, according to FEC filings. He also allegedly stole money from donors to his website, Catholic.org, and evaded taxes for years, federal prosecutors say. “Doing business as…

June 11, 2015 | Money-in-politics is not a young person’s game. While 2016’s presidential hopefuls may try to recreate Barack Obama’s successful appeal to young voters, they’ll spend much of their time hitting up the country’s wealthiest senior citizens for cash. Already Republican candidates are vying for the support of the septuagenarian Koch brothers and the octogenarian Sheldon Adelson,…

May 28, 2015 | Next month the House will consider a bill to overhaul how the federal government regulates toxic chemicals. That in itself is a milestone: Despite bipartisan support for the idea, the process has been long and tortured, complicated by millions in lobbying and campaign donations. And the fight may be far from over. For more on…

May 26, 2015 | Karl Rove and his colleagues at the dark money behemoth Crossroads GPS have a “new” 501(c)(4), and according to reports, they’re going to use it in much the same way they have used GPS itself — as a conduit for anonymous, political money in the 2016 elections. But the group, One Nation, isn’t “new,” and…

May 26, 2015 | Several lawmakers caught up in an investigation of their participation in a lavish overseas trip introduced legislation that would benefit the alleged host of their spring 2013 junket – the state-owned Azerbaijani oil company. Additionally, these lawmakers — and others on the trip — have received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a…

April 30, 2015 | In the 2014 elections, 31,976 donors — equal to roughly one percent of one percent of the total population of the United States — accounted for an astounding $1.18 billion in disclosed political contributions at the federal level. Those big givers — what we have termed the Political One Percent of the One Percent…

April 27, 2015 | The first three months of 2015 saw Washington consider one of the most expansive trade negotiations in history; the future of technology and the Internet; and the merger of major cable communications companies. You’d better believe that those debates — and other, perennial wrangles on subjects like the Affordable Care Act — caught the attention…

April 24, 2015 | Some K-Street watchers predicted that the first quarter of 2015 would mark a return to boom times for lobbyists, what with a new GOP- dominated Congress digging in to legislation. But success for some of the top firms does not appear to have translated into a pickup overall. Once again, the first quarter of the…

April 21, 2015 | The three rising giants of tech all spent heavily on K Street in the first quarter of the year, marking perhaps a permanent change in the hierarchy of Silicon Valley's profile in Washington. Google and Facebook both spent close to record-breaking amounts on federal lobbying, Amazon.com smashed its previous quarterly record -- and all three surpassed first-quarter spending by Microsoft and Oracle, two high-tech names that have reliably dominated the industry's outlays on K Street.

April 17, 2015 | Search engine giant Google could be facing major penalties in the European Union after it was charged this week with favoring its own products and services in search results over those of its competitors. The case is being called the most significant in the antitrust realm since the U.S. sued Microsoft in 1999. The charges…

April 8, 2015 | On April 13, one of the largest and most controversial political groups of the post-Citizens United era will celebrate an important anniversary: The three-year statute of limitations will expire for statements made by Crossroads GPS on tax returns covering its first 18 months, making it nearly impossible for the group to be penalized for activity it reported in…

March 27, 2015 | Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid‘s announcement he won’t run for reelection in 2016 lights up unexpected races for his leadership post and his Nevada seat, but its biggest impact might be the loss of one of the Democratic party’s most industrious and creative fundraisers. And in the post-Citizens United era, Reid has been a linchpin of…

March 11, 2015 | Big money hates the underdog. But what happens when the underdog wins? The race to make amends with the newcomer is a mad dash down K Street after every election, and recent campaign disclosures show some striking turnabouts by big-league PACs. More than any favoritism for Democrats or Republicans, big PAC money most reliably supports…

March 6, 2015 | Silicon Valley has staked its claim in Washington. From Capitol Hill to the White House, tech money is everywhere — and 2016 looks like it will be the industry’s biggest year yet. Tech may not be pushing as much cash into politics as Wall Street, but its influence is on an upward climb. Its lobbying has…

March 4, 2015 | Jeb Bush has reportedly asked potential donors to cap their contributions to the super PAC set up to support his 2016 presidential candidacy at $1 million — a request first reported in the Washington Post that has raised eyebrows around the campaign finance world. It’s an extraordinary request, and not just because it involves a candidate…

February 27, 2015 | A profile of net neutrality’s biggest opponents is available here. Yesterday we profiled the top four opponents of net neutrality who, though the FCC’s decision to regulate the Internet as a public utility has been made, are likely to continue to play a role as the decision is contested in the courts and perhaps in…

February 19, 2015 | A federal investigation into events surrounding the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign in Iowa is ongoing and “making progress,” the Des Moines Register reported today. During a brief hearing that included federal prosecutors and the attorney representing a former Iowa state senator who has pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance rules in connection with the campaign, prosecutors said they are…

February 13, 2015 | Rep. Aaron Schock has had a bad few weeks. He’s been mocked for redecorating his congressional office in the style of Downton Abbey, accused of selling his house to a campaign donor for an inflated price and savaged for his extravagant spending of taxpayer and campaign donors’ money; that doesn’t even include losing a key…

February 5, 2015 | In the ongoing scrum that is the GOP presidential money primary, every wealthy donor locked up adds both to a potential candidate’s perceived viability and his credibility with more donors. FEC filings from late last month have already yielded positive signals for several of the senators who may be angling for the nomination, but the…

February 5, 2015 | December’s cromnibus spending package was a bonanza for lobbyists, with the defense, banking, and health care industries especially flexing their influence muscle to make sure their priorities were on the agenda. The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 83), or Cromnibus, which combined a short-term continuing resolution on Department of Homeland Security funding with broader…

January 30, 2015 | Yesterday’s Senate vote on the KeystoneXL pipeline showed some sharp breaks along party lines, as no Republicans voted against the bill — but also along lines of financial support from special interest groups. Last night, we noted that senators who voted for the pipeline project to go forward have received, on average, seven times more…

January 29, 2015 | Senators who voted to push through development of the Keystone XL pipeline today have received, on average, $570,034 in contributions to their campaigns and leadership PACs from the oil and gas industry over the course of their careers. The 35 senators who voted against bill have received, on average, just $78,641 from the industry. The Obama…

January 28, 2015 | K Street may not have pulled out of its slide quite yet, but a close read of the numbers suggests that things could be returning to normal. That’s a new normal, however, without the big jumps in client spending that helped propel lobbying income to new heights just a few years ago. The last several…

January 23, 2015 | It wasn’t a great year for Washington lobbyists, nor was it a terrible year. But according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the now-complete 2014 lobbying disclosure data, federal lobbying expenditures declined yet again. Largely to blame for the drop was a weak fourth quarter, which comes as a surprise given the flurry…

January 20, 2015 | The economy is growing steadily, unemployment is down, the stock market is soaring, gas prices are diving. Good luck getting a rise out of someone by mentioning the deficit at a Washington dinner party, something that would have been unimaginable in the not-so-distant past. There’s plenty of good news for President Obama to dwell on…

January 16, 2015 | It’s no secret that our political process lavishes more attention on some states than others. Witness the long list of presidential contenders making pilgrimages to New Hampshire and Iowa, for example. At other points in the process, different states take center stage: Wealthy coastal locales are magnets for politicians seeking to build their war chests…

January 12, 2015 | It would take the combined wealth of more than 18 American households to equal the value of a single federal lawmaker’s household, the Center for Responsive Politics’ latest analysis of congressional wealth finds. The median net worth of a member of Congress was $1,029,505 in 2013 — a 2.5 percent increase from 2012 — compared with an average American…

January 6, 2015 | Speaker John Boehner of Ohio secured a third term as the top Republican in the House, and number three in the line of succession for the presidency. But party dissidents made a scene, with 25 not voting for him on the first ballot. Each vote was arguably a slap in the face; it’s rare in recent…

January 6, 2015 | Seven years after President George W. Bush signed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) into law and then-Sen. Barack Obama, (D-Ill.) declared it to be “the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate,” a joint analysis by the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics suggests the effort may have misfired. A key…

December 22, 2014 | This report is the third (part 1/part 2) in a series examining the years-long decline in both spending on lobbyists and the number of active lobbyists. Overall spending on lobbying has been on a downward trajectory since 2010 and the number of active lobbyists has seen an even longer-term and more drastic drop. Previous entries…

December 17, 2014 | Former Florida Governor and ex-First Brother Jeb Bush announced his plans to start a fundraising committee next month, and immediately some big names in GOP money — such as Florida developer Mel Sembler — got behind him. Bush has recently proven his ability to raise big bucks, but some of Bush’s likely competitors for the…

December 12, 2014 | In the wake of the passage of the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill last night, it’s no easy thing sorting out the winners and the losers. The wide variety of riders and add-ons means a slew of interest groups can claim victory, even if it’s hard to pin down exactly who should claim credit for stuffing the…

December 3, 2014 | This article was cross-posted at TIME.com. The defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline bill in the Senate last month may have been viewed as a blow to Sen. Mary Landrieu‘s re-election bid, but her battle to get the bill passed was warmly received by members of the oil and gas industry, including Keystone’s parent company.…

November 26, 2014 | The lobbying effort to allow commercial drone use looks set to take a major hit, with the Federal Aviation Administration planning to issue a series of long-awaited regulations as soon as the end of December. And given what the FAA will be proposing, according to a report this week in the Wall Street Journal, businesses hoping to make use…

November 19, 2014 | Senate Democrats successfully blocked a bill Tuesday that would have approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The controversial measure fell one vote shy of overcoming a filibuster, with 59 senators supporting it and 41 opposing. The vote followed the bill’s approval in the House by a much wider margin, with 252 lawmakers voting to advance the pipeline.…

November 18, 2014 | The Ron Paul presidential campaign of 2012 is not over. In fact, the legal entity that controlled the campaign had $576,000 in the bank on Sept. 30 — a substantial sum for a White House bid that effectively ended two-and-a-half years ago. Leftover campaign cash can be used for a variety of purposes, but since August,…

November 10, 2014 | It may be too early to call 2014 the year that K Street’s long decline ended, but the most recent round of reports suggest at least a leveling off. Third quarter 2014 lobbying expenditures totaled $771.9 million, which is only a bit lower than outlays during the same period in previous years. And spending for the…

November 5, 2014 | Republicans made the most of their fundraising advantage and routed Democrats in Tuesday’s midterms, but they seized the majority in the Senate and built their lead in the House even as fewer donors participated in the process and more of the dollars came from secret sources. Democrats weren’t swamped when it came to the money…

November 4, 2014 | Complaining about about seven-figure donors to gargantuan outside spending groups has become almost as commonplace as griping about the weather. But that doesn’t mean the little guy doesn’t count. OpenSecrets Blog looked at the top 10 senators and House members who received the most money in small donations ($200 and less) as a share of the…

November 1, 2014 | The incumbent advantage in fundraising is undisputed — so when a challenger brings in the larger haul, that often raises red flags for the sitting lawmaker’s re-election prospects. This cycle, only 10 federal races feature an outraised incumbent. Chalk those up to a variety of scenarios: a scandal-ridden candidate; a wealthy self-funding challenger; shifting political…

October 16, 2014 | Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Chevron Corp. made a $2 million donation to CLF. It has been corrected to reflect the actual amount of the donation, $1 million. Chevron Corp. donated $1 million to a conservative super PAC with ties to Karl Rove’s dark money network in early July, a rare instance of…

October 10, 2014 | California congressional candidate Ro Khanna is one of only eight challengers in the country who led their incumbent opponents in fundraising as of mid-year, and the only Democrat running to unseat a member of his own party. Khanna is trying to oust seven-term Rep. Mike Honda to represent California’s 17th District, which includes much of…

October 6, 2014 | One month till the election? Welcome to the OK Corral — the shootout’s just beginning. Both the National Rifle Association and Americans for Responsible Solutions, the pro-gun control group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), have said they will unleash a fusillade of ads supporting and attacking candidates in some of the tightest contests in the…

October 3, 2014 | They may be called super PACs, but they can’t be everywhere at once. It’s become fashionable for these committees, which can spend unlimited amounts on ads backing or attacking candidates anywhere in the country, to tout their allegiance to a state. But as often as not, an OpenSecrets Blog analysis found, they run mainly on out-of-state money. We tallied up…

September 25, 2014 | With all the talk of U.S. elections being hijacked by bellicose billionaires, it’s easy to forget this fact: Very few Americans overall make political contributions, and while those at the top of the income scale have more resources, they’re often reluctant to invest their wealth in trying to influence elections. OpenSecrets.org ran the numbers on political…

September 10, 2014 | His victory last night in New Hampshire’s GOP primary means Scott Brown will continue to catch flak for moving from Massachusetts to try to take Democrat Jeanne Shaheen‘s Senate seat. Shaheen has been working hard to tag Brown with the carpetbagger label. But the reality is that almost all of the fuel for this fight…

September 2, 2014 | Americans who have taken advantage of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to toss aside overall political contribution limits are one in a million. Actually, they’re slightly fewer than one in a million. Of the 318 million people in the U.S., a whopping 310 donors have given more than the total $123,200 they were allowed to…

July 30, 2014 | Lobbying filings for the second quarter show that the public debate often seeps into the advocacy efforts of companies. This year: immigration, net neutrality and the right to channel a broadcast program using a tiny antenna have caused several companies to spend big in order to influence legislators. Meanwhile, some topics, including gun rights and defense spending,…

July 30, 2014 | Spending on K Street through the first half of this year is barely lower than it was last year — perhaps an early sign that the lobbying industry is coming out of its slide. Federal lobbying expenditures have slipped from a high of $3.55 billion in 2010 to $3.23 billion last year, for reasons not fully…

July 28, 2014 | Bruce Rauner is a Chicago billionaire who has never held political office, yet this spring he mowed down a crowd of rivals and claimed the GOP nomination to be Illinois’ next governor. David Perdue is a wealthy former executive who also has never been elected to public office, yet he too knocked off a string…

July 22, 2014 | During Facebook’s early years, the company barely noticed Washington, taking a full five years to spend its first dime on federal lobbying. Then, the company’s investment in the capital began growing rapidly, alongside its revenue and ambitions. Now, as a full-fledged corporate behemoth, with a billionaire CEO recently interested in politics, the company’s lobbying has exploded, making even its recent expenditures look small.…

July 18, 2014 | Maybe he got sentimental reading the hundreds of pages of evidence and findings about his travels with Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), released last month by the House Ethics Committee. Maybe he was worried about Young’s finances after all the investigations. For whatever reason, Randy DeLay is back — and still sticking with Young. On June 30,…

July 15, 2014 | In 2004, Randy DeLay was asked by the commissioners of the Port of Brownsville, Texas, to justify his $25,000 monthly lobbying bills. Why was he submitting such high travel expenses for what appeared to be junkets? DeLay, the younger brother of then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), explained to them that lobbying is expensive work, especially when you’re trying to…

July 7, 2014 | Money-in-politics data geeks have been abuzz lately about a new plug-in called Greenhouse. Created by 16-year-old Nick Rubin, Greenhouse uses data from OpenSecrets.org to enable users to check a politician’s finances and top contributors by hovering over his or her name on any web page. This new tool isn’t the only one using Center for…

June 30, 2014 | Attention, supersleuth readers: We have a brand new tool for you to play with, a new category on our anomaly tracker. This one is focused on outlier expenditures of political committees, allowing you to find out when more than 50 percent of a committee’s money goes to a single vendor — and who those cash-guzzlers are.…

June 26, 2014 | Rep. Charles B. Rangel won re-election to New York’s 13th Congressional District seat by a razor-thin margin this week — but that’s no thanks to fellow Democrats, who all but abandoned their longtime colleague on the fundraising front. In 2012, when he faced his first close shave against state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, contributions from other Democrats’ campaign…

June 23, 2014 | Last month, former Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt announced his candidacy for the state’s Fourth Congressional District seat by shooting some early barbs at his former protégé, incumbent Rep. Mike Pompeo, citing some of the “big policy differences” that divide them. The Republican rivals have one thing in common, though — the hand that has fed their political careers is one and…

June 17, 2014 | Since the beginning of the 2014 campaign cycle last year, 14 donors — running the gamut from a hedge fund manager to a gay rights activist to a little-known Salt Lake City venture capitalist — have given $100,000 or more to President Barack Obama’s avowedly un-campaign committee, Organizing for Action. Another 26 have ponied up…

June 13, 2014 | Though it has now come to a screeching finish, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.)’s leadership position in the House has brought him enduring connections, political clout and insider knowledge — in other words, potent K Street cred. “He brings incredible contacts with the whole Republican caucus in both houses” of Congress, said Ivan H. Adler, a…

June 10, 2014 | Last week, an urgent fundraising email from the Tea Party Express PAC raised a few eyebrows in the campaign finance community. “We just got off the phone with the McDaniel campaign and they need our help!” Sal Russo, the group’s chief strategist, wrote in the opening line. The problem? The Tea Party Express raises major…

May 14, 2014 | The announcement earlier this year of plans to merge Comcast and Time Warner Cable raised red flags for many telecom industry watchers, as the result would be a mega-company with corresponding power over cable TV consumers and immense influence in Washington. But this week brought market-moving news of another potential industry merger — this time a…

May 13, 2014 | Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce provided more than half the two-year budget of a conservative nonprofit geared toward youth that has been running controversial anti-Obamacare ads, according to tax documents obtained by OpenSecrets.org. In the three years for which tax information is available, Generation Opportunity has raised almost 86 percent of its funds from just…

May 12, 2014 | Politics has always been partly a game of chance. And when it comes to the politics of gambling policy, where the industry’s high-rolling campaign donors are anteing up for a clash over online gaming, it’s anybody’s guess who the big winners will be. The gaming industry has long had a big presence in Washington.…

May 2, 2014 | Overall spending on lobbying may have fallen again in the first quarter of 2014, but not everyone decided to pull back. In fact, some companies and industries pumped up their lobbying in the quarter, with the chemical and pharmaceutical industries leading the pack. Dow Chemical was the company with the biggest jump from the fourth quarter of 2013…

May 1, 2014 | Lobbying firms hoping for an uptick in spending by their clients had a disappointing first three months this year, an analysis by OpenSecrets.org shows: It was the worst first quarter in the last four years, continuing the downward slide of K Street spending. Recently filed lobbying disclosure reports show that a total of $811.8 million…

April 4, 2014 | Nearly all of the trade groups on a letter attacking a proposed minimum wage increase have extensive Washington ties, pouring millions into congressional campaigns and spending more than $91 million on lobbying last year.

March 13, 2014 | We're hosting a mini-conference on roadblocks to transparency in the U.S. government -- and proposing some solutions. Experts from CRP, Campaign Legal Center, Covington & Burling, Center for Public Integrity, CQ Roll Call and more will address the issues in panels on campaign finance, lobbying, and the growth of dark money. Sign up now!

March 12, 2014 | It's hard to sort out lobbyists' motivations for making campaign contributions. But the top recipients of their donations so far this cycle are a bit of a surprise: Top Republican leadership and at-risk Senate Democrats.

February 28, 2014 | A Senate report this week hammered European banking giant Credit Suisse for helping American clients hide billions in Swiss tax shelters. Still, despite the report and a tough hearing that followed, Credit Suisse is actually on quite good terms with a number of lawmakers -- and is an all-around big spender in town.

February 12, 2014 | Breaking with the pattern of more than a decade, House candidates brought in less money last year than they did two years earlier. Only Democratic incumbents saw their receipts go up.

January 24, 2014 | Newly released emails and recordings of conversations show top officials from the National Right to Work Committee were deeply involved with a huge off-the-books mass mailing operation benefiting state candidates in 2010, indicating the organization may have falsely told the IRS it didn't engage in politics.

December 9, 2013 | American Future Fund's money in 2012 came almost exclusively from the Center to Protect Patient Rights and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce -- two organizations that have been linked to the Koch brothers.

December 9, 2013 | Eight major tech firms -- including Facebook, Google and Microsoft -- issued an open letter to President Obama calling for stricter rules regarding government surveillance of the internet. They've also been lobbying extensively on the issue.

November 8, 2013 | The initial public offering for Twitter went off without a hitch yesterday, but the company also recently made a much quieter debut in Washington. Last month the company filed its first ever lobbying report. It was modest, but that could change if the social network company follows the lead of its compadres in the computers and Internet industry.

November 7, 2013 | The amount of outside spending that's occurred in the 2014 election cycle is up dramatically from its level at the same point in the last cycle. Spending by dark money groups alone has increased even more. The real surprise is that liberal groups have dominated the scene so far.

October 28, 2013 | Attention West Coast fans! The Center for Responsive Politics and the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism will host a two-day training for working reporters and journalism students Nov. 1 - 2 at the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

October 11, 2013 | Despite the fact that Koch Industries has attempted to distance itself from the budget and debt ceiling hardliners in Congress this week, there are ties between the company and the Republicans who have been pushing their leadership to hang tough.
As it turns out, Koch Industries' corporate PAC is a big supporter of many of the 20 "dissident" Republican House members who have been identified as the biggest thorns in the side of the Republican leadership on the shutdown and the debt ceiling.

October 1, 2013 | Making payments to government contractors is one of the many functions of the federal government which could be halted in a shutdown. The likelihood of a shutdown lasting long enough to hurt the bottom line of a company as large as Lockheed is remote, but we thought we'd take the opportunity to check out which members of Congress may have some displeased donors if the shutdown lasts a little too long.

September 23, 2013 | The Baucus jobs summit last week in Butte was billed as a nonpolitical event meant to promote jobs in his home state of Montana. But it also drew major corporations interested in corporate tax reform. For many of these companies, the ties to Baucus and his former staffers on K Street run deep.

September 21, 2013 | Will Tom DeLay, whose state money-laundering conviction was thrown out this week, try for a comeback? If so, he'll have to find a few new sources of campaign cash. Some of his deepest-pocketed donors have moved on in one fashion or another.

September 5, 2013 | Members of Congress spend much of their time chasing campaign cash and struggling to boost their war chests to fight off the next rival. And for a variety of reasons, an increasing number find themselves with flush bank accounts when their congressional careers are over, keeping them high on their former colleagues' call lists.

August 7, 2013 | The Ron Paul presidential campaign may have been involved with negotiations to offer financial compensation to an Iowa state senator in exchange for his endorsement and support in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, according to emails obtained by OpenSecrets.org.

July 25, 2013 | Criminal charges filed against a top hedge fund might signal the end of the fund's high-flying ways -- on Wall Street and here in Washington. SAC employee contributions have leaned Republican in the last couple of election cycles, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor receiving more than any other current lawmaker.

July 25, 2013 | Second quarter lobbying reports show more declines in spending. With a couple of exceptions -- the American Hospital Association and NCTA -- cutbacks were the rule from April through June.

July 23, 2013 | Tech firms and others listed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the NSA's collection of Internet and phone data as issues they lobbied on in the second quarter of the year. Big tech companies backed off a bit from their explosive lobbying growth, though they hadn't previously mentioned these issues as concerns.

July 23, 2013 | The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent more than $1 billion lobbying members of Congress and other officials since 1998 - by far a greater amount than any other organization over the period. The Chamber has no rivals in terms of raw resources devoted to lobbying - and may also have little competition when it comes to overall influence on the Hill.

July 2, 2013 | Fancy dinners with members of Congress are all but verboten for lobbyists these days. But they can still make an impression with campaign contributions. An OpenSecrets.org analysis has crunched the available numbers from the 2014 election cycle.

June 19, 2013 | OpenSecrets.org's newly updated 2012 data, released today in the Historical Elections part of our site, shows that the cost of getting elected to Congress was up significantly over the last two cycles.

June 18, 2013 | As all good fundraisers know, it takes money to make money. And in the months leading up to the 2012 election, the most expensive in U.S. history, money was flying around Washington, D.C.: Congressional campaigns and party committees spent huge amounts at restaurants and hotels, much of which went to stage fundraising events. The Center for Responsive Politics followed the breadcrumbs and half-finished glasses of wine to craft our own tour of the city for those interested in discovering some eye-opening, and mouth-watering, secrets about money and politics.

June 11, 2013 | Last week's revelations that the U.S. government was collecting data on millions of phone calls made through Verizon and running an Internet surveillance program targeting foreign nationals via major online corporations, make it almost inevitable that the issue of electronic privacy -- already a hot topic in 2012 -- will vault to near the top of the lobbying charts in 2013. Even before the recent news of government snooping made headlines, a number of bills impacting privacy and cybersecurity had already been introduced this year.

June 10, 2013 | Hollywood usually gets rapped for being a stronghold of out-of-touch liberals. Grover Norquist usually gets rapped for hating out-of-touch liberals and taxes. But according to IRS tax forms, the two sides have managed to find some common ground -- at least $100,000 worth.

June 6, 2013 | The House vote May 22 to yank President Obama's decisionmaking authority on the KeystoneXL pipeline passed easily, with members voting mainly along party lines. Not a single Republican voted against it. But an analysis of donations shows that the support of various interest groups was an even better predictor of how members voted.

June 5, 2013 | Many of the top 10 university recipients of government R&D grants also were top spenders on lobbying compared with other schools -- and also were big contributors to federal candidates, parties and outside groups in the 2012 campaign cycle, OpenSecrets.org data shows.

May 14, 2013 | A mash-up of data on bill sponsorships, campaign contributions and lobbying shows that in some cases, lawmakers have sponsored bills of interest to just one entity -- which happens to be a top contributor to the lawmaker's campaign fund.

May 2, 2013 | Following a pattern that has been playing out for the last few years, spending on federal lobbying declined in the first quarter of 2013. There were exceptions in connection with the hottest issues of the past three months, like the gun control debate; but overall, most organizations that traditionally spend big on lobbyists have cut back once again.

March 20, 2013 | Spending on lobbying as well as the number of active lobbyists was down in 2012. But nearly half of lobbyists who were active in 2011 but reported no lobbying in 2012 continued to work for the same employers -- suggesting that many have simply avoided the reporting limits while still contributing to lobbying efforts.

March 11, 2013 | Companies turn to lobbyists to weigh in on the terms of the 11-nation trading alliance. And it looks like a major lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, is poised to cash in with the launch of a new global arm that will influence the TPP discussion and other international projects.

March 4, 2013 | Skirmishing over proposals to overhaul the nation's immigration laws has begun in earnest, but lobbying on the issue picked up months ago. Last year more clients reported lobbying on immigration than in any year since 2008.

February 27, 2013 | The subject of the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing today -- a proposed assault weapons ban -- is controversial enough. But casting another shadow on the conversation is the fact that members of the panel, who may vote on the proposal as early as Thursday, have received far more in campaign contributions from gun rights groups and individuals who are committed to the issue than they have from the other side. Since 2000, committee members have collected over $350,000 from gun rights groups and individuals, but just $17,000 from pro-gun control interests.

February 14, 2013 | Americans borrow a lot of money, and so do members of Congress. In 2011, lawmakers owed between $238.9 million and $568.3 million to various creditors, not including their home mortgage obligations. But it's not all student and car loans and carried-over credit card balances. Lawmakers borrow to buy planes and boats, and get involved in complex transactions involving lines of credit and margin loans with exclusive investment funds. And some carry credit card balances of more than $100,000.

February 14, 2013 | Iraq hires the Podesta Group, known for its ties to top Democrats, to boost its image on Capitol Hill, and American Airlines merger with US Airways will create a jumbo jet sized K Street game.

February 7, 2013 | When lawmakers debate whether to extend low rates on subsidized student loans later this year, many of them will be feeling firsthand the pain of student loan debt: Five senators and 41 members of the House report that their liabilities include money still owed on loans to finance their own education or that of their children.

February 1, 2013 | We know, we know: 2012 is over, done, in the rear-view mirror. But in the campaign finance world, midnight last night in many ways marked a reckoning for 2012 politicians, super PACs and others involved in the election.

January 30, 2013 | A South Florida doctor's office is raided by the FBI, apparently in connection with allegations that he provided free trips and hookers to Sen. Robert Menendez. True or not, the doctor and his family have been generous donors through the years -- mostly to Democrats.

January 23, 2013 | The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its subsidiaries were by far the fourth quarter's biggest spenders on lobbying. But don't forget Google -- or the American Dehydrated Onion and Garlic Association.

January 16, 2013 | It takes a ton of cash to put on the sort of show President Barack Obama has planned this weekend for his second inauguration. But who's paying for it -- and what might they want in return?

January 7, 2013 | Google's big victory last week -- when the Federal Trade Commission announced it is closing its antitrust investigation of the search giant -- was credited by many to the fact that Google did what Microsoft refused to in the 1990s: It learned how to play ball in Washington.

December 10, 2012 | Mitt Romney went to Vegas to attend a fight, but Sheldon Adelson wasn't by his side. The MGM Grand, where the fight took place, is actually a big Democratic donor. Also, Charlie Crist makes it official at the White House.

November 26, 2012 | Puerto Rico doesn't need statehood to be a major player in Washington, Patty Murray emerges as the powerbroker on the fiscal cliff and Romney beat Obama in Iowa -- at least in terms of spending.

November 16, 2012 | Whistleblower protections eaten away by the courts are back -- and yes, there was lobbying on the bill. Meanwhile, the Torch is back, showing up on federal lobbying registration forms for the first time.

November 13, 2012 | The computers and internet industry, which includes companies like Google and Microsoft, is on an upward trajectory when it comes to lobbying expenditures, bucking the overall downward trend in money spent trying to influence government.

October 30, 2012 | Super PACs and nonprofits unleashed by the Citizens United Supreme Court decision have spent more than $840 million on the 2012 election, with the overwhelming majority favoring Republicans, particularly GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The spending helped close the gap on Obama's considerable fundraising advantage over his rival.

October 22, 2012 | With Election Day looming and the need for cash urgent, core constituencies for each of the presidential campaigns stepped up their support in the month of September. But each candidate also made headway fundraising from industries that have been stalwarts for their opponents.

October 16, 2012 | Compounding pharmacies, like the one that made the steroid that's been linked to cases of deadly meningitis, aren't new to the ways of Washington. Also, celebrity supporters of Obama cut new ads for him.

October 8, 2012 | CRP's collaboration with the Investigative News Network, the National Institute for Money in State Politics and news outlets in seven states yields a close look at wealthy donors' wide-ranging giving.

September 20, 2012 | A new poll finds Democrats more concerned than Republicans about donations from corporations, unions and the wealthy; Restore Our Future pours money into Wisconsin and Michigan; and where Washington sports team owners put their political investments.

September 18, 2012 | Visualizations by Newsweek & The Daily Beast in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics show the explosive growth in spending by groups that don't disclose their donors.

September 13, 2012 | OpenSecrets.org unveils its latest tool -- at-a-glance profiles of more than 20,000 organizations that include lobbying, campaign finance and other information on one page to help you easily measure an organization's influence in Washington.

September 13, 2012 | Lawmakers presiding at a hearing today on problems plaguing the F-22 Raptor have taken in more money from the aircraft's maker than the average member of Congress, according to a new report using CRP data.

September 11, 2012 | Three of the candidates who are likely to emerge winners of today's primaries in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware will go straight into general election contests that are rated as toss-ups as Republicans fight to retain their large majority in the House.

August 2, 2012 | The Internet's K Street presence becomes more formidable with the launching of a trade group for the likes of Google and Facebook. And -- whoa -- a new smartphone app for a first look at who Romney picks to be his running mate?

July 31, 2012 | Restore Our Future follows Priorities USA Action in using the Olympics to talk about Romney, this time in a positive light. But will Olympic officials come down on this super PAC as it did on Priorities? Also, how corporations embroiled in scandal deal with contributions to politicians, and the Teamsters stand strong in the realm of political giving.

July 9, 2012 | We assume most Americans won't be sweating this return to more comfortable temperatures this week. Unless, of course, you work as a lobbyist for the air conditioning industry, in which case you may feel the need to turn up the heat on Congress, lest it forget how essential heating and cooling issues are to your average American.

July 6, 2012 | Campaign for Liberty, a libertarian activist group run by Rep. Ron Paul and his son, Sen. Rand Paul, has released a manifesto pushing for 'free Internet', according to Buzzfeed, signaling a shift in focus for the family's libertarian cause.

June 19, 2012 | Howard Rich was behind a slickly produced, anti-Earth Day video this year that's been watched more than 2 million times on YouTube. That's just one product to emerge from his tightly-knit network of tax-exempt groups that pass money back and forth and are active political players. The original donors, though, aren't known. Which is just the way he likes it.

June 12, 2012 | If campaign donations facilitate access to power, a select group of Washington lobbyists will be scheduling many meetings on Capitol Hill after the 2012 elections. These deep-pocketed individuals regularly donate the maximum allowable amount of money to federal candidates (currently $117,000 per 2-year cycle). Today, the Center is releasing a new feature, displaying the top 25 lobbyist contributors to federal candidates, parties and outside spending groups.

May 15, 2012 | Ron Paul's announcement Monday effectively ending his presidential bid brought the end of a quiet campaign that nevertheless raised more money -- $36.7 million as of March 31-- than that of any Republican candidate other than Mitt Romney. And his donors had an identity all their own.

March 2, 2012 | Welcome to the latest installment of OpenSecrets Blog's Mailbag, where we answer your burning questions about the role of money in politics, political influence and the work we do here at OpenSecrets.org.

February 24, 2012 | An Obama fundraiser at the Orlando home of a Dallas Mavericks star last night wasn't the only evidence that NBA players and owners know how to play politics. They've contributed $2.6 million to federal candidates and political committees since 2009, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, and have shown a strong preference for Democrats.

February 2, 2012 | Republican Mitt Romney relied on the finance, insurance and real estate sector for roughly $2 out of every $11 he raised during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics of campaign finance documents submitted Tuesday to the Federal Election Commission.

February 1, 2012 | Facebook continued to show off its growing political muscle Tuesday night, as its nascent political action committee disclosed an impressive six-figure haul during its inaugural fundraising quarter.

January 26, 2012 | SOPA and PIPA appear to have been very, very good for K Street.
Companies that lobbied on the two bills spent at least $104.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, more than double the $49.3 million they laid out in the previous quarter, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.

January 26, 2012 | The nation's economy may be slowly rebounding, but during 2011, the economic engine of K Street sputtered. Overall expenditures on lobbying were down for the first time in more than a decade, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.

January 25, 2012 | Who's been funding the presidential super PACs since last June is largely a mystery, and will remain so until next week. But how the groups have been spending their money is a different story, thanks to legal requirements that expenditures over a certain threshhold be disclosed quickly.
And the super PACs, just like the candidates they support or oppose, have shown deep differences in how they're allocating their money to get their messages across, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the expenditures.

January 10, 2012 | Voters in New Hampshire are heading to the polls today for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary contest. Here are three money-in-politics facts about the contest in the Granite State to consider as these votes are cast.

December 14, 2011 | It's the steal of the century. For the price of buying a condo in Washington, D.C., you can support the political campaigns of members of Congress who support your trillion-dollar program. Talk about return on investment!

November 22, 2011 | According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, 19 current members of Congress reported holdings in Goldman Sachs during 2010. Whether by coincidence or not, most of these 19 Goldman Sachs investors in Congress are more powerful or more wealthy than their peers, or both.

November 9, 2011 | Voters in Ohio last night went to the polls and enacted a referendum to repeal a law that restricted the collective bargaining rights of many of the state's public sector employees. Many of the biggest public sector unions spent heavily in Ohio to influence turnout. And they also spend plenty of dollars on influence in Washington, D.C.

November 7, 2011 | The chairman and largest stakeholder of social media deal-finder Groupon, which went public Friday, is a big-time donor to Democratic causes, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.

November 2, 2011 | Lobbying expenditures fell during the third quarter of 2011 for many of the country's most prominent companies, especially those in the energy and natural resource sector, according to a preliminary analysis of about 90 percent of all third-quarter lobbying reports by the Center for Responsive Politics.

October 25, 2011 | Though President Barack Obama may no longer be Wall Street's preferred candidate, Obama continues to win the support of several smaller sectors and interest groups, including lawyers, health professionals, the technology industry and Hollywood.

October 24, 2011 | Google. Facebook. Netflix. They are brands that are defining a generation. And as these tech companies see their customer bases grow and profits soar, they are also seeing surges in their lobbying expenditures in Washington.

September 27, 2011 | Facebook announced on Monday the creation of a corporate political action committee, called FB PAC, The Hill reports. The move comes just a week after it announced a major revamp to its platform.

August 31, 2011 | The co-chairs of the 12-member supercommittee charged with chopping $1.5 trillion from the nation's debt have chosen Mark Prater, the chief tax lawyer for the Senate Finance Committee, as the new group's staff director.

August 25, 2011 | Three dozen members of Congress held stock in Apple in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. That makes it one of the most popular assets among all congressional investors.

August 17, 2011 | According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, Schultz, along with his wife, Sheri, has donated $183,650 to federal candidates and political committees since the 1994 election cycle when he made his first known donation. Of that sum, 95 percent has benefited Democrats, including $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

July 28, 2011 | Fairsearch.org will not be giving Google a +1. To combat what they see as "the Google problem," Fairsearch.org hired lobbyists for the first time and spent 80,000 lobbying during the second quarter on behalf of "competition in the search market," according to a review of lobbying disclosure reports by the Center for Responsive Politics.

June 27, 2011 | A darling of the Tea Party movement, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has positioned herself as a formidable Republican presidential candidate since her performance during a GOP debate earlier this month in New Hampshire.

May 13, 2011 | Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the granddaddy of the Tea Party movement, showed the world he could turn enthusiastic grassroots support into political gold during the 2008 election cycle. But as he again seeks the GOP presidential nomination this year, Paul hopes he won't be just playing second fiddle to the Romneys and Gingriches of the race.

May 11, 2011 | With a competitive three-way special election just two weeks away in the New York 26th Congressional District, the big-spending conservative super PAC American Crossroads is stepping into the action. And the group's move prompted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to make a big media buy of its own, too.

April 21, 2011 | Facing a newly divided Congress and a murky legislative outlook in the near future, many of the nation's most active government lobbying powerhouses are slowing the pace of their spending, preliminary analysis of first quarter federal lobbying reports show.

April 4, 2011 | During the 2008 election, Barack Obama set fund-raising records and mobilized millions of individual donors. Obama was particularly successful in turning small-dollar donors into repeat givers, often via the Internet. His re-election campaign will be trying to emulate that success this go around.

March 3, 2011 | In late February, President Barack Obama announced 22 new members for his council on jobs and competitiveness, a group he established in January. The new appointees are also linked by a shared experience: donating to Democrats.

February 17, 2011 | For Google and Facebook, the president serving as their pitchman is indicative of their meteoric rise both outside and within Washington, D.C. And it marks how the political landscape has rapidly shifted for computer and Internet companies, with Washington nonentities of just a few years ago now ranking among the most prominent players in the capital.

February 1, 2011 | Former Republican governor Jon Huntsman of Utah is resigning from his post as U.S. ambassador to China, and rumor has it, he is considering running for the U.S. presidency instead. Huntsman has been the nation's top diplomat in China since the summer of 2009.

December 15, 2010 | The 20 companies represented at today's summit spent $104.6 million on federal lobbying this year, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis. That is, these 20 businesses alone fueled 4 percent of the $2.61 billion spent by all companies, unions and other organizations during the first three quarters of 2010.

December 3, 2010 | From January through September, 29 unique groups have lobbied on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on openly gay service members, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of federal lobbying reports explicitly mentioning the measure.

November 18, 2010 | Despite expending massive sums of money, some of the industries most active in lobbying the 111th Congress slowed their spending during this year's third quarter in the face of the midterm elections and a changing political tide, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of federal data.

September 29, 2010 | In a congressional election cycle marked by continued economic strife and high unemployment, out-of-state campaign contributions are padding war chests for both incumbents and challengers across the country, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of campaign finance filings.

September 23, 2010 | Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:
GAY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS DOWN IN CONTENTIOUS YEAR: Gay and lesbian advocacy groups have had a chaotic week. Gay rights advocates won big Wednesday with Florida overturning a ban on gay adoption for infringement of Constitutional rights. But on Tuesday, despite Lady Gaga's best efforts, a Republican filibuster blocked the Senate from repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gay military members serving openly.

September 20, 2010 | Whether you call it a "527 committee," an "independent expenditure-only committee" or a "super PAC," the conservative outfit American Crossroads continued to demonstrate its fund-raising prowess in August.

September 15, 2010 | Within the electorate, much anti-establishment fervor comes from a belief that Congress spends too much money and government has grown too large. This week's PolitiQuizz deals with everyone's favorite political spending topic: Earmarks!

September 2, 2010 | REPUBLICANS LEAD IN POLLS AND TOTAL MONEY RAISED: A new Gallup poll gives Republicans their largest lead ever -- a 10-point spread, 51 percent to 41 percent --- in Gallup's tracking of midterm elections, which dates back to 1942. But GOP candidates are also leading the race in another arena: campaign funding.

August 30, 2010 | Companies that are known for giving us our much-needed caffeine fix have also been known to spend big in politics. In this week's PolitiQuizz, OpenSecrets Blog wants you to investigate the pocketbooks of the political side of your beverage.

July 30, 2010 | A Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows that the biggest contributors to the 49 members of the newly-established congressional Tea Party caucus -- it so far includes only Republican -- are health professionals, retired individuals, the real estate industry and oil and gas interests.
Furthermore, donations from health professionals, oil and gas interests and Republican and conservative groups are, on average, higher for Tea Party caucus members than for members of the House of Representatives in general and even their fellow House Republicans.

July 8, 2010 | BYRD'S SEAT UP FOR SPECIAL ELECTION: On Wednesday, Governor Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced that he would try to hold a special election this year for the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd's Senate seat. Manchin also said that he is considering running for the seat himself in that special election.

June 24, 2010 | In a 219-206 vote on the House floor today, the House voted to pass H.R. 5175, known as the DISCLOSE Act, an acronym for Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections.

June 18, 2010 | In the aftermath of Thursday's congressional hearing on oil company's BP, we're getting this question over and over again: Who are the lawmakers who've received the most money from the company? While we've reported the answer time and again, no better time to rehash it than now.

June 2, 2010 | BIRTH CONTROL COSTS: Should health insurance companies be required to cover the cost of birth control pills? Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Planned Parenthood are among those who think so.

May 27, 2010 | BP GOES WITH MUD: After several failed attempts to seal the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP on Wednesday entered a new phase in the ongoing effort. Their weapon of choice? Mud. The National Law Journal also reports that Halliburton, which was involved as a contractor with the now-sunken oil rig, has hired D.C. lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs for legal counsel.

May 20, 2010 | KAGAN NO FAN OF CITIZENS UNITED: She doesn't have a judicial record to pass around, but Elena Kagan recently filled out a 202-page questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Supreme Court nominee is reportedly dropping clues in interviews with senators this week.

May 3, 2010 | Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the top congressional recipient of BP-related campaign cash during the last election cycle, has no plans to return contributions from the company responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters to beset her state, her office tells OpenSecrets Blog.

April 26, 2010 | A bill to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system is due for a pivotal test vote in the Senate this evening, and all eyes will be on Senate Republicans, who promised to filibuster the legislation without certain changes.

April 11, 2010 | About 16 years ago, Lefty swung right -- and the move didn't involve a 9-iron. Rather, Phil Mickelson donated $705 to the campaign of the deeply conservative JD Hayworth, who was then running for the U.S. House.

March 31, 2010 | A newly-minted federal advisory board on tobacco regulation began preliminary hearings on the issue of menthol brand cigarettes this week, the New York Times reports. The panel was created last year when Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration power to administer regulations of the tobacco industry.

March 29, 2010 | Despite Barack Obama's pledge to limit special influence participation in his administration -- he's sought to prohibit lobbyists from serving on federal advisory panels, for example -- a half-dozen of these new appointees have strong union or special interest ties, or are themselves former registered lobbyists.

March 19, 2010 | Two recent articles in Politico highlight the precarious position in which Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) now finds himself as a result of his opposition to health care reform legislation that's primed for a vote Sunday.

March 4, 2010 | The Republican National Committee is planning to raise money during 2010 midterm elections by capitalizing on 'fear' of President Barack Obama and a promise to 'save the country from trending toward socialism.'

February 8, 2010 | In 2009 alone, Toyota employed 31 federal lobbyists -- including a former member of Congress and numerous ex-congressional staffers -- and spent nearly $5.4 million to lobby the federal government, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

February 4, 2010 | MONEY IN MIAMI: Democratic senators and K Street lobbyists hit the beach over the weekend at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee retreat at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach Resort, an event with the purpose of raising money for Democratic Senate candidates in the 2010 election.

February 1, 2010 | In a scene more reminiscent of the United Kingdom's Prime Minister's Questions session, the Right Honourable President Barack Obama traveled to Baltimore to -- wait for it -- serve as the featured speaker at a retreat for Republican House of Representative members.

January 15, 2010 | AID EFFORTS UNDERWAY IN HAITI: Following Tuesday's earthquakes that devastated Port-au-Prince, aid efforts have begun to assist the city into recovery. Countries around the world are contributing to the effort including Washington's lobbying industry.

January 14, 2010 | With Google this week enduring a Chinese attack on its computer systems -- and the Obama administration and FBI taking keen interest in the development -- the tech giant may be poised for an even greater uptick in its political influence efforts.

December 17, 2009 | IS THAT THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL -- OR ANOTHER TRAIN? The health care marathon continued this week as senators took on pharmaceutical product pricing. On Tuesday night, two amendments were brought to a vote bringing up the possibility of buying prescription drugs from other industrialized nations who generally can offer cheaper prices.

December 16, 2009 | JUST SAY NO TO (CANADIAN) DRUGS: Drug makers spending a bazillion dollars to lobby the federal government? Shocker! The pharmaceutical and health products industry is only the year's top industry, in terms of lobbying dollars spent, among the 121 different industries we track.

December 3, 2009 | Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) makes the second member of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition in the last two weeks to announce that he'll be retiring at the end of his term, leaving the Blue Dogs to find new members of their pack.

November 2, 2009 | A new book detailing the political contributions and practices of nearly 5,000 companies goes on sale today, providing consumers with a powerful tool in helping them vote with their wallets.

November 2, 2009 | SCOTUS WATCH: The United States Supreme Court is poised to overhaul laws that govern how companies may spend political cash and that decision could come as early as tomorrow. A study by watchdog group Common Cause uses data from CRP to examine the potential repercussions of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission if the court decides to allow corporate political spending.

October 29, 2009 | BCRA IMPACTING PREZ FUND-RAISING BLITZ?: President Barack Obama has now clocked 26 fund-raisers since his inauguration. President George W. Bush, by comparison, at this point in his presidency, had logged only six fund-raising events. According to CBS' Mark Knoller, there's another dimension to the picture: In Bush's first six fundraisers, he was able to raise $48 million, while Obama has raised just $21 million over the course of the first 21 events.

October 28, 2009 | The Federal Communications Commission's decision last week to begin developing open Internet regulation has left a few big-time political donors and lobbying forces in the telecom industry wondering whether their message got lost in transmission.

October 20, 2009 | U.S. ACTION AGAINST GENOCIDE: For the past six and a half years, many activists, humanitarian groups and political leaders have worked to end the violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan and deal with the fallout from the genocide. Now, seven months into office, the Obama administration has announced their new strategy.

September 25, 2009 | ALL SHOOK UP: First, President Barack Obama calls for registered lobbyists to be ixnayed from federal advisory boards and committees. And now, not a day later, the American League of Lobbyists' Dave Wenhold is calling out Obama as Captain Anti-Transparency.

September 24, 2009 | Who better to bundle: Regulations intended to shed light on bundling by lobbyists are coming up short. According to an Associated Press review published last week, which compared invitations to fund-raisers hosted by lobbyists and campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission from March 19 through June, lawmakers have yet to disclose funds they raised at 195 events.

September 16, 2009 | If the Senate gets its way, be prepared to wait in long lines the next time you want to catch a train. In a win for the well-heeled gun rights lobby, the Senate today passed an amendment to a transportation bill that would stop the release of $1.6 billion in federal funding to Amtrak if the railroad prohibits customers from transporting their weapons.

September 8, 2009 | ON THE EVE OF SHOWTIME: It started with a scathing movie about Hillary Clinton. And Wednesday, the Supreme Court will begin entertaining the monster of a campaign finance-related legal case that's grown from it, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

September 4, 2009 | Retired pitching ace Curt Schilling -- he of the split-finger fastball, bloody World Series sock and thoughts of running for the late Ted Kennedy's vacant U.S. Senate seat -- has also teamed with his wife to toss notable amounts of cash at Republican candidates and committees, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

September 2, 2009 | The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has left Democratic lawmakers scrambling to fill his seat in the midst of intense debate over one of Kennedy's highest legislative priorities -- health care reform. We thought we'd take a look at some of the possible candidates and how their fundraising compares to that of the late senator.

August 31, 2009 | THE (UN)CONSTITUTION STATE: As much of the country patiently awaits next week's Supreme Court case that could re-shape campaign finance rules, a judge in Connecticut is making his own waves. Judge Stefan Underhill ruled last week that the state's public financing system for state lawmakers and candidates "puts an unconstitutional burden on minor party candidates' First Amendment right to political opportunity."

August 14, 2009 | SWALLOW THE MONEY: Please pass the sugar, honey. No? We're out? Splenda? Are you kidding? In a move that justs begs to get the American Dental Association involved, several large food companies are conjuring such a sour scenario while lobbying the Department of Agriculture to reduce import restrictions on the sweet, grainy white stuff, lest the nation find itself devoid of confections.

July 24, 2009 | President Barack Obama told the nation during a Wednesday night press conference that a Harvard professor at the center of a police racial profiling controversy is a longtime friend. In fact, Henry Louis Gates Jr. is more, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates: The professor was a notable donor to Obama's 2008 White House bid.

July 1, 2009 | Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is an OB-GYN who has delivered more than 4,000 babies. Since 1995, he has also collected $1.1 million from the health sector as he advocates for market-based reforms for health care.

June 23, 2009 | Health care providers may have the same basic goal in mind--to provide quality care to the sick--but the group splinters when determining the best way to do that and cut costs. The debate over health care reform pits doctors against nurses, primary care physicians against specialists. And each group is spending plenty of cash to ensure Congress understands their diagnoses

June 22, 2009 | President Obama has once again announced several new ambassador picks choices, including two individuals who both contributed the maximum amount to his presidential bid and have also bundled hundreds of thousands of dollars for his committees.

June 18, 2009 | The latest batch of picks for U.S. ambassadorships–along with their spouses and children–have contributed at least $637,800 to federal candidates, parties and committees since 1989, including $32,775 to Obama himself. These people also brought in at least $1.1 million for Obama's presidential bid as bundlers.

June 4, 2009 | The fact that money-in-politics relates to an array of issues was demonstrated again this week by the diverse ways reporters and others used CRP's data. Check out some of those stories here.

May 29, 2009 | While Kuchera Defense Systems' recent troubles may not have anything to do with Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), the congressman can't deny a strong financial connection to the contractor:
In addition to the millions he's secured in earmark funds for the company, he has also collected more political funds from employees at Kuchera than any other current member of Congress since 1992.

May 28, 2009 | U.S. presidents have long rewarded big campaign donors, fundraisers and other loyalists with ambassadorships, and Democratic President Barack Obama seems to be no exception. The list of individuals he has announced he will be nominating to ambassadorships around the globe include several big contributors and bundlers.

May 22, 2009 | There's no doubt that CRP's work informs a variety of issues and appeals to a wide audience. This week alone reporters used our data to explore the money-in-politics shaping some of the most newsworthy legislation, including the credit card bill, climate change legislation and the health care reform debates, among other topics.

April 21, 2009 | Our friends over at Sunlight Labs yesterday announced the winners of their first ever Apps for America contest. We were especially pleased to see that a few of the winners used CRP's money-in-politics APIs and data.

February 27, 2009 | The Associated Press reported today that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) helped funnel $66 million in earmarks to his home state to help create a business park at the decommissioned Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, N.H. That in itself wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that some of the senator's personal investments are wrapped up in the project.

January 15, 2009 | There won't be any corporate advertising on the dais, but a number of major corporations and influential industries will be represented at Barack Obama's inauguration by individuals who've contributed as much as $50,000 apiece--and bundled up to $300,000--to underwrite the festivities. According to a new analysis of inaugural donors by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, individuals associated with Microsoft, Google, Citigroup and many more companies are among the upcoming event's biggest contributors.

December 1, 2008 | The fundraisers for the Obama-Biden transition announced this morning that they raised just under $1.2 million to finance the transition in the 11 days following Barack Obama's election. At a little over $100,000 per day, the pace of the transition's private fundraising is not nearly as torrid as during the campaign, when Obama's average daily haul was about $1 million.

August 26, 2008 | While school was out, college professors and other educators were putting money into Barack Obama's presidential campaign, according to a new analysis of the Democratic nominee's summer fundraising. Educators contributed at least $2.3 million to his campaign in June and July, surpassed only by lawyers, who make up Obama's top-giving industry since the campaign's start, and retirees.

June 9, 2008 | The money that flows into Congress is often meant to spur the stream of money back out of Congress. Such is the case especially with contributors seeking a handout from their representative in the form of earmarks, or pork.

June 5, 2008 | Now that the Democrats have a presidential nominee who refuses contributions from lobbyists and political action committees, the Democratic National Committee is bringing its own fundraising policies in line with Barack Obama's.

May 15, 2008 | Sometimes all it takes to be the coolest kid on the block is throwing the best party--at least that's what the more than 50 corporations that signed up to underwrite the biggest Democratic bash of the year are banking on.

March 12, 2008 | Republican John McCain has been outspoken about the influence of special interests in Washington, but those working for his presidential campaign are lobbyists themselves. Most recently he's come under fire for his reliance on his top advisers who lobbied for a $35 billion contract for Airbus, which means the work will be outsourced.

February 6, 2008 | In preparation for a tough race against Democrat Barack Obama, who is reporting bringing in about $32 million in January, Hillary Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million, according to the Associated Press.

December 6, 2007 | Lobbyists do represent ordinary Americans, as Hillary Clinton claims, but those contributing to her campaign mostly represent big industries, the Center for Responsive Politics finds. Obama and Edwards eschew lobbyists' money, but their biggest contributors still lobby in Washington.

April 11, 2007 | Nominated for the seventh time as the world’s best politics website, OpenSecrets.org is also up for a “People’s Voice Award.” Fans of the money-in-politics site can vote online. ____________________ Following a win last year for being the best website about politics, OpenSecrets.org has been nominated again for the prestigious Webby Award. While an expert panel…

August 31, 2006 | Money-in-politics resource is a ‘classic’ that shows ‘exactly where the paper trail leads’ ____________________ PC Magazine has named the online money-in-politics resource OpenSecrets.org as among “The Top 101 Classic Web Sites of 2006,” along with Google, Yahoo! and the Library of Congress. This is the latest accolade for the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which…

June 23, 2006 | Senators take up the network neutrality issue, which pits entrenched telecom interests against the Internet’s newcomers. By Neil Tambe and Eric Warren June 23, 2006 | The Senate is now considering legislation that would ensure the Internet remains based on a principle of equal and open connectivity. Opponents of so-called network neutrality legislation have contributed…

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